Evaluation of Major Project

I feel as though I have had a breakthrough in my work, as though I have caught a glimpse of something that I need to keep working towards. The new ability I have to combine my various techniques of working has enabled me to use my collaging skills to great advantage, seeing what might go together in an interesting way, and it is such a thrill to the eye. I could say that I wish I had managed it earlier in the course, but I have been working as hard as I can, and so I just think that it comes to each person when the time is right. I think I have learnt a lot on this course, and that it will become more obvious and relevant to me in the year to come. I am not looking for a particular style, and neither am I bothered about maintaining any style, but am open to change and where my interest takes me regarding technique. I think I probably have an innate style anyway, its just the way I do things.

I have really enjoyed working on The Zookeeper's Wife, its such a great story. It also allowed me to indulge my interests of animals and collecting and museums and entomology, modern architecture, polish illustration, etc etc; a bit of a gift really, illustration-wise. I do not feel as though I have finished, I want to carry on with it. I still have the show to work for. My initial proposal was to perhaps do a book, and to focus on the experience of the little boy, Rysz, who grew up at the Warsaw Zoo during the war years.

However, I found that I needed to look at the story as a whole, and that is what I have done, excerpting the view from the child's position might be another tangent. I think it is easier to tell a story, to create a narrative when you can combine different elements digitally, at least that is what I have been finding at the moment. I certainly have made a lot of imagery through various workshops and techniques that I can use for this. Putting together previously incompatible imagery, that would have been bound to the particular discipline they inhabit, is a new experience for me. Also working in layers means you are not bound to any particular sequence of working as one is in traditional media.

I am not saying here that I now wish to be a digital artist, far from it, I get wrist ache quite quickly, but it is nice to have the option and to be able to scrutinise other people's work and wonder how they achieved that handmade effect digitally.

I have done some interesting stories during this course, and I like the way some of the work I have done has come together on this project, as though there is something working and some synchronicity to it all.